And then there was weather, humidity, and spring cleaning.

The weather is as unpredictable as my inspiration. We are currently on tornado watch in Missouri. The storm clouds dull the sun's light and the humidity thrives within the heat. My husband and I are tackling the spring cleaning and clearing the muck from within. It amazes me how paper can collect in that mess drawer I try so hard to avoid. Currently, I am cleaning my office. I have a few paint spots on my desk from previous artistic pursuits. My sketching pencil grows shorter and shorter with every sharpening. My eraser is sticky and pliable. The sketches and illustrations are littered about the shelves and desk.
It is time to put the sketch book away for today. what an odd feeling. This book has become a part of me. It is a representation of thought and dreams manifested into illustrations and rough drawings depicting scenes from a story I yearn to share.

 Have you ever wanted something so much that the want burns in your heart? My aspirations yell for recognition. A desire to accomplish this task consumes me. My downtime is consumed with thoughts, phrases, and stories to tell. I am a visual person and see a story in my mind. The colors allow me to convey what is a vivid representation of my thoughts. I aspire to share my stories. I aspire to get them out there to share with many.  With high aspirations, work to achieve these dreams must accompany it in more than thought. Due diligence must be paid.I pay this debt to the art of story writing and illustration by taking time to make all of these thoughts and dreams visible on paper. I attend a critique group to learn from those who have aspired longer that I have. My work is a piece of me. It is imperfect, for art is subjective. It is your audience that you must entertain. My audience is the 3-7 year olds.  Each illustration must be submitted to the harshest critiques; my children. I ask them to tell me what is happening in my picture. If they can describe the message I am trying to convey, then my task has been completed accurately.  I am an aspiring children's book author and illustrator with a story. I actually have a couple to share, but first this one. This week, I will be refining my work and hope to send it to my copy editor of awesome for some wisdom and assessment. That is the goal and the road I chose to follow. As Andy is perfected, Abernathy has started to develop. It will be a young adult book about earth healers. But first, Andy needs his adventure!

The curse of the perfectionist.

Yes, I have that curse. I write, rewrite, write some more. I just sent out the new revision of my Andy story with several rewrites. My characters are different from the original. I do hope to bring back my red fish, Claire, in another Andy story. I recently finished a double page illustration that took hours to finish. It also includes a small song that I wrote. After finally completing this illustration, my first impulse was to throw it all away. I know, silly. But seriously, haven't you ever looked at something you finished and think how you could make it better if you did this and that...Yeah. Well, for now, I will leave it alone. I am going to put a pic of the double page in this entry for y'all. Please forgive its crudeness as I am using my phone to capture it.

I have emailed my fabulous critique group my newest and latest manuscript. The good news is that it is under 400 words. That is important in my genre focus. I think it would be considered an easy reader, but will have to do a little more research. I am very proud of it. Pending the outcome of my critique group and the super hero, I think it will be time to get this out and query the agents again. I currently have 7 completed illustrations and the rest sketched out in a rough dummy. I still have a couple of months before I find anything out about that much needed award and grant. I have a 10 year old computer that doesn't handle photoshop and a serious lack of printer/ scanner. I need to update my technology. When I hear back from the ladies, I will write about that outcome and post some pictures! Thank you, for following!